Menlo Park looks to beef up surveillance efforts

By Bonnie Eslinger

Daily News Staff Writer

Posted:
09/02/2013 08:52:49 PM PDT

Updated:
09/02/2013 09:16:39 PM PDT

The Menlo Park Police Department is looking to create a database of home and business surveillance cameras as part of a high-tech crime-fighting effort that also involves city-operated surveillance cameras, vehicle license plate readers and expanded use of red-light enforcement cameras.

Police Chief Robert Jonsen said residents and city officials are clamoring for such tools because they want more criminals brought to justice.

"People are constantly asking when we are going to get surveillance cameras," Jonsen told The Daily News in a telephone interview Monday. "We hear it after every shooting, that's definitely a fact."

On Friday, the police department called on residents and business owners to voluntarily disclose the locations of surveillance cameras they've installed. The idea is to create a database that police can use to help locate potentially useful footage.

"It allows us to enter in the address," Jonsen said. "The only time we access that (footage) is if there's a crime in that vicinity."

The police chief noted that law enforcement used private video to help identify the Boston Marathon bombing suspects.

Menlo Park is also moving forward with a plan to install surveillance cameras along Willow Road, at the intersections of Hamilton Avenue, Ivy Drive and Newbridge Street, according to police Cmdr. Dave Bertini. A camera might also be placed on Chilco Street, Bertini wrote in an email.

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In addition, the city council is weighing a police department request to purchase three license plate readers, which would be installed on marked cars. Pictures taken by the devices are checked against a database of stolen vehicles, lost or swiped license plates and vehicles with warrants connected to them.

However, some council members have raised concerns about privacy. On Sept. 28, the city council is set to discuss how data collected by license plate readers is retained and used, Bertini said.

In July, the American Civil Liberties Union published a 26-page study that was critical of the technology, ultimately warning that a "single, high-resolution image of our lives" is being assembled.

It was also revealed last week during a council discussion on the city's red-light enforcement program that cameras are capturing images of every vehicle that passes through an intersection, not just those that run red lights. Bertini told council members that the images have been used in a range of investigations, from hit-and-runs to homicides. The city council voted to extend the program for another five years and to add a fifth camera at Bayfront Expressway and Chilco Street.

"Every time you go through an intersection you're being videotaped," Vice Mayor Ray Mueller said in a telephone interview Monday. The elected official said he has concerns about the city's increased use of surveillance technology and wants to see a "strict privacy policy" in place before more red-light cameras are installed.

Databases of the comings and goings of people in the city could potentially be abused, Mueller said.

"What we don't want to have happen is have it used against citizens who are just going about, lawfully conducting their daily life," he said. "The problem is, with enough cameras, you'll be able to track people, where they're going."

Belle Haven residents have mixed feelings about the increased use of surveillance, said Carolyn Clarke, who lives in the neighborhood. Participants in an online forum at Nextdoor.com offered a range of opinions, she said.

"Some want the cameras. Others think it's an invasion of privacy," Clarke said. "Then there are those who say, 'Just put a gate at every corner (of Belle Haven).' That's how desperate we are."

Sitting with Clarke outside the Starbucks at Belle Haven Center, resident Donna Lee saw more positives than negatives with the cameras.